THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 5, 1995 TAG: 9503020195
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 08 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY
STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHOWAN RIVER LENGTH: Long : 177 lines
ON A SECLUDED section of this wide, cypress-lined waterway, what once was the world's largest herring factory is sinking into the silt.
The Perry-Wynn's Fish Co. was built in 1947 to process the thin, silvery fish that were the main income of Edenton-area families. More than 100 women worked at the wooden factory, cutting herring and packing them for shipping across the country. Ten boatloads of watermen hauled 100,000 pounds of fish across the docks every afternoon.
Today, the building is crooked and crumbling. Piles of cypress planks have fallen along the warped docks. A rusty conveyor belt system drops haphazardly into the river.
Only one family still fishes full-time for herring.
This may be their last year in the almost-extinct business.
Used to be like a circus out here, each spring. Weren't nothing on Easter weekend to see 500, 600 people out here, all buying and selling fish,'' said Herbert Byrum, who grew up next to the fish company and still lives on his family's land.
``That place closed in '90, though. Then, the March '93 storm knocked it in. No one's done nothing with it since then. No need to.
``We're the last ones around here herring fishing.''
Byrum and his brother, Bobby, are trying to hold onto their heritage.
Five generations of watermen made their living fishing pound nets along the Chowan's fertile shores. The Byrums' 80-year-old father still meets them at the docks to help count the catch. But the brothers are the last of their long line.
``We weren't even going to set nets this year, except we didn't want to lose the family sets,'' Bobby Byrum said late last month, nosing his workboat into the northwest wind and heading for the herring pound. ``We won't make enough money off it this year to even cover expenses, probably. But this is all we've ever done. You can't just give up and die.''
Traditionally, watermen set their huge herring nets in early March, wrapping the lines around stakes and pipes, creating a pen into which the flat fish can swim. White perch, catfish and nanny shad fill the nets for a few weeks. Herring start spawning in early April.
``They usually get here about April 15 - that's when you make most of your money,'' said Herbert Byrum. ``Last year, I sold 80,000 pounds of herring. At least 75,000 pounds of that was after April 15.''
This year, herring season closes April 15.
For the first time, commercial watermen will have to remove their nets before the fish even arrive.
The North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission has decided the herring need help.
``River herring stocks are in stressed condition. Fish were being caught before they had a chance to spawn,'' said Fentress ``Red'' Munden, chief of fisheries management for the state's Division of Marine Fisheries.
``April 15 was a compromise closure date. We realize that herring migrations often are close to that time period every year. But some members of the commission felt that herring stocks were in such poor shape that if they postponed closure until May 1, it really wouldn't gain much toward protecting the species.''
By closing the herring season, Albemarle-area watermen say state fisheries officials endangered a historic way of life.
``Why have a season at all when they close it up before it really begins?'' Bobby Byrum asked. ``If we had anything else at all to do, we wouldn't've set nets this year. But if we didn't, we'd've lost the spots our family has handed down generation to generation.''
North Carolina's herring season has been year-round since 1958. Prior to that, the season closed in mid to late May. Although the season has been shut down this year, rules governing pound net placement have not changed.
If watermen don't set their nets, they will lose that spot forever.
``We began a permitting process for pound nets in 1990, so that state officials would know where they all were,'' Munden said from his Morehead City office. ``There is no cost for the permit. There's no limit to the number of nets a person can set. But if the nets aren't set in a year, the permits become void.''
According to state records, watermen received permits to set 962 pound nets in 1995. Some of the nets catch flounder, some spot and croaker, some herring. In Chowan County, 128 pound nets are permitted - primarily for herring fishing. Last year, 85 percent of the state's 900,000-pound herring harvest was caught in Chowan River pound nets.
The Byrum brothers fish 30 nets.
``It's a good life, for a while, but we shouldn't've gotten into it,'' Herbert Byrum said as he and Bobby dumped a load of catfish into the workboat last month. ``This river used to be so full of herring at times you could almost walk across on 'em. But the state won't control pollution. So the fish - and fishermen - don't have a chance.
``Meanwhile, we got to spend gas money getting out here and invest more money mending nets. All we do 'til the herring come is pay expenses, get by. This year, I guess that's all we'll ever do.''
Across the Albemarle area, watermen admit that herring stocks aren't what they used to be. Populations began dropping off in the early 1980s, they said. A few commercial fishermen got out of the business then.
In 1983, state fisheries experts Harrell Johnson and Mike Street wrote a report on the decline in herring stocks. According to their research, five factors - none of them caused by local watermen - contributed to the decrease in population:
Dam construction.
Foreign overfishing in the ocean during the 1960s.
Degradation of water quality resulting in blue-green algae blooms that killed herring food supplies.
Channeling of swamps and creeks.
Loss of spawning grounds and nursery areas to development.
``Paper mill effluents kill all the nutrients the herring need. But the state won't regulate them or their waste. Just us fishermen,'' Bobby Byrum said. ``We don't mind some rules. But it's not right for the state to keep regulating us right up the river and let the paper mills keep doing what they've been doing.
``All we'd like to do is see the state come up with a better plan to protect the water, the fish, and the fishermen.''
Munden said he understands why the watermen are upset. ``They feel like they're the only ones being regulated,'' said the state fisheries expert. ``If it is water quality, development of the shoreline and other factors causing the stock declines, the fishermen feel there are little restrictions placed on the other industries which are contributing to the problem.
``But our agency has to limit its activities to the fish and the fishermen,'' Munden said. ``Other state agencies control water quality and pollution.''
Rather than shutting down the herring fishery at a certain date, the Byrum brothers said they would like to see state officials reduce landings by limiting the number of nets a waterman can set. Fishermen begged state agencies to monitor water pollution better. They urged industries that discharge waste into the river to help clean up the environment.
``The state has just regulated the herring fishermen completely out of the business,'' said Murray Nixon, a former member of the North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission who owns a seafood company near Edenton. ``It's been a way of life for this community for as long as anyone can remember. We all made our living off this river. Pollution has caused most of the problems. But commercial fishermen have had to shoulder the burden.''
Nixon's brother, Leroy, set 28 herring nets 10 years ago. In 1993, he set 12, and still managed to earn enough money to make it worthwhile. This year, the sixth-generation waterman decided his business - and his heritage - was washed up.
Leroy Nixon didn't set any herring nets this year. He plans to try farming full-time.
Murray Nixon said his fish house will have little herring to salt, sell or offer for bait. After a full day on the water last month, the Byrum brothers caught 14 pounds of herring. Nixon's fish house paid the watermen 14 cents per pound. Including profits from the catfish, perch, shad and other fish that wound up in the herring nets, the brothers made a total of $96. They spent $20 on gas for the boat. It was an average day, they said.
``Watermen have worked this river, fishing for herring, the same way since Colonial days. Only difference was, they used sails on their boats and we have motors,'' Herbert Byrum said. ``Way things are going, if I can keep fishing at all, looks like I'll have to go back to sails. Just can't afford to keep buying that gas.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Cover]
[Color Photo]
Bobby Byrum is a fifth-generation waterman on the Chowan River.
But the declining fortunes of the herring stocks may make it the
last generation to try earning a living from the pound nets.
Photography by Robie Ray.
The Byrums haul in white perch, catfish and nanny shad in March. The
herring start running in early April.
Staff photos by ROBIE RAY
Betty Byrum and family members sort the day's catch at their fish
house.
The Perry-Wynn's Fish House - like the once-booming herring
population - is collapsing on the Chowan River.
One of the Byrum brothers washes off the day's catch from the
family's pound nets on the Chowan River. Besides 14 pounds of
herring, the baskets on the Byrum family's docks hold nanny shad,
yellow and white perch, raccoon fish, catfish and other species.
by CNB